CAMBOURNE OBSERVED the first Festival of Languages on Sunday 21st at Hub Community centre.
Residents exhibited the historical facts of their culture, heritage, traditional practices, famous people, places, flags and their languages and scripts.
Participants displayed their books, magazines, art items, dress and jewellery and made the handmade freebies for the visitors to take home. They also added colours with their regional music, dance and food.
County Councillor Mark Howell showed the techniques of sign languages to the people of Cambourne. He said: "The Language Festival was an excellent idea and a wonderful afternoon. Languages from around the world in one room with a common goal of sharing and expanding people's knowledge. A truly special time which I hope will be repeated for others to enjoy."
The speakers of Slovenian, Assamese, Hindi, Italian, Tamil, Russian, Estonian, Kannada, Spanish, Marathi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Bangla, Catalan, Japanese, Urdu, Sindhi, English, Greek and Bulgarian along with Sign language and Slovenian Braille presented their languages and techniques in the festival.
Cambourne resident Darcy Simpson said: "There was a great jolly atmosphere and yummy food. We met some really friendly people and had interesting chats at our English table and at the other language tables. We learnt a lot! The music and dancing was fun too. It was quite a party!"
Councillor Shrobona Bhattacharya who conceived the idea of the festival said: "We have a great diversity in Cambourne, the language festival provided a platform to contribute towards knowledge and information to showcase the diversity of different cultures."
